Conventionally, there are many systems that configure devices based upon settings customized for a particular user. Often, these systems require the user to enter a password in order to access and apply that particular user's settings. In other cases, the systems merely require that the user make a selection (e.g., button 1 is mapped to user 1, button 2 is mapped to user 2, and so on), however, in the latter case, such systems do not provide any means of identification or verification. For example, user 2 could accidentally or purposefully press button 1 and the device would be configured with the settings of user 1.
Biometric data such as fingerprints, DNA, voice patterns and the like have long been employed for purposes such as identification as well as authentication, however, there is very little research or work directed toward employing biometrics for the sake of convenience. While biometric data is often an effective tool for identification, it suffers from numerous problems when used for authentication. Namely, many systems that rely upon biometrics for authentication can be readily circumvented by common fraudulent means, such as obtaining samples of the biometric (which can often be an extremely easy task for those skilled in this type of fraudulent behavior), and then copying or mimicking the samples (or utilize the samples themselves) to fool the authentication system.
Ironically, biometrics are often only employed for authentication when highly important, critical, expensive, and/or secret ends are involved, even though biometric authentication is not generally among the strongest or most effective means for authentication conventionally known. Moreover, when the stakes are high (e.g., highly important, critical, expensive, and/or secret ends), that in itself can provide a powerful incentive or motive to entice fraudulent behavior. However, there is very little incentive to fraudulently circumvent an authentication system when there is little or nothing to be gained from doing so. For example, there is often a very strong incentive to fraudulently circumvent an authentication system protecting a top secret military device or a multimillion dollar asset account, but no strong incentive to circumvent an authentication system for, say, a user's list of favorite television channels.